Skills
Page 101
How To Peel Squash: An Easier Way
Many dishes, including one of my favorite pastas require roasted cubes of squash, so I can’t just cut the squash in half and roast it. It has to be peeled and cubed. Up until very recently, when confronted with a butternut squash waiting to be peeled, I would sigh and pull out the sharpest peeler I had. I would cut the squash in half, lay the cut side down, and painstakingly peel it like a cucumber. This would take a long time, and it was invariably tiring and tedious.
Dec 16, 2008
The Difference Between Braising and Stewing
You know that we love braising, here at The Kitchn. It’s one of our favorite ways to cook meat because it’s easy, hands-off, and foolproof. It also works well on cheaper cuts of meat. We’ve noticed that we tend to braise more pork and lamb than beef, but we miss the great beef braises from our childhood. So we turned to the official Beef Checkoff Culinary Center and their chef, Dave Zino.
Dec 12, 2008
Use Pie Dough Cut-Outs to Top Pies
One of our favorite pies in last month’s great Best Pie Bakeoff was Deb’s Cherry Berry Pie, and this was partly because of her creative use of pie dough cut-outs to create a top crust.We like doing this too; in fact, we look forward to making our fancy shapes at the end of filling our pie crust! It’s the fun part. Deb’s pie, pre-baking.Deb’s pie, after baking.Here are a few tips for making pie cut-outs.• Make sure your dough is well chilled.
Dec 10, 2008
Money-Saving Tip: Buy Bone-In Meat
There’s been a lot of talk lately about buying cheaper cuts of meat to save money. We’ve told youhow to cook themmake good braisesBut even if you want to keep buying chicken breasts and pork chops (rather than shanks and flanks and butts), buy them with their bones still attached. They’re cheaper, but you actually get more for your money. It’s a win-win…Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are great when you need clean, neat chunks for a stir-fry.
Dec 9, 2008
How To Make Whipped Chocolate Ganache
A chocolate ganache is just chocolate melted and beaten into heavy cream. It’s a magic substance; it can be a glaze, a filling, a coating, a solid truffle — it just depends on the ratio of cream to chocolate. I like a ratio of a bit more cream to chocolate for a whipped filling; this ensures that it doesn’t get too hard and difficult to spread.
Dec 9, 2008
Quick Tip: The Best Way to Store Mushrooms
Mushrooms aren’t exactly the hardiest of ingredients! Once home, they can become slimy and develop brown spots within just a few days. If we can’t use them all right away, we try to do whatever we can to eek out just a little more life from our mushrooms. Here’s how…Lots of theories seem to exist about the best way to store mushrooms: in a paper bag, wrapped in damp paper towels, in a sealed container… And we’ve tried them all at one time or another!
Dec 8, 2008
Good Question: Help! How Do I Caramelize Sugar With a Kitchen Torch?
Here’s a question from reader Donna. She is just learning to use a kitchen torch to caramelize sugar, and it’s not going well. She writes:I have a kitchen torch and CANNOT burn the sugar. I tried brown sugar, granulated and raw sugar and it does not burn. Is it the torch? Should I use turbinado sugar?Donna, the key to getting a good caramelized top is actually using a very thin layer of fine white sugar.
Dec 4, 2008
Ingredient Spotlight: Ham Steak
Before we could start appreciating ham steak as an ingredient in our cooking, we had to first get over childhood memories of thick slabs of oddly pink meat with dry, curling edges plonked directly from the frying pan onto our plate. Shudder. Luckily, quick dinners aren’t all that ham steaks are good for…A ham steak is really just a slice of ham from a whole ham roast.
Dec 3, 2008
Oxtail: What It Is, And What To Do With It
I was watching Iron Chef: Battle Oxtail with my partner the other night, and he turned to me and asked, “What’s oxtail?” This inspired me to write a post on this delicious but relatively unknown cut of meat. Oxtail is the tail of a cow. In olden days, it came from the tail of an ox, but now it comes from the tail of a cow of either sex.
Dec 2, 2008
Food Science: Why Do Crustaceans Turn Reddish-Orange When Cooked?
Have you ever wondered why lobster, shrimp, crab, crawfish, and other crustaceans turn a bright orange-red when cooked? No, they aren’t blushing from embarrassment. It’s a simple question answered with science.Crustaceans have exoskeletons, and while the animal is in the sea, the exoskeleton primarily has a blue-green to grayish color. The exoskeletons contain a carotenoid called astaxanthin. Carotenes are pigments, and astaxanthin is the same carotene that gives salmon its color.
Dec 1, 2008
New Favorite Indulgence: Pear Brandy
Many months ago, we bought a bottle of pear brandy to make a pear clafouti, which turned out to be a disappointment (unlike this berry one, which Faith highly recommends). The brandy sat in a cupboard, forgotten, until we pulled it out to make a version of Nora’s Thanksgiving Poinsettia cocktail.
Dec 1, 2008
Baker’s Techniques: How to do the Windowpane Test when Kneading Bread
The windowpane test is one of the best ways to tell if you’ve sufficiently kneaded your bread dough, though it can sound like a pretty bizarre instruction when you come across it in a recipe! Here’s what you do…First, cut off a small piece of the dough about the size of a golf ball.
Dec 1, 2008
Turkey Giblets: We Got Robbed!
This is our turkey, and it was missing one very important thing that we were looking forward to: the giblets! We love giblets in stuffing, and we were looking forward to putting them in our turkey stock (for gravy) and in the bread dressing itself. Well, lo and behold, when we went in to get them there was only a lone neck – no giblets.But it turns out that, given the kind of turkey we bought, we should have been ready for this. Read on to learn why.See?
Dec 1, 2008
Word of Mouth: Le Trou Normand
Le Trou Normand (luh trew nor-mahnd): A pause in the middle of a meal where everyone has a drink of brandy and then continues to eat.Folklore has it that the shot of alcohol burns a hole (“un trou”) in your stomach so that you can eat more food. This is something we definitely could have used last Thursday!At dinner parties, we tend to eat and drink throughout the evening, one conversation or platter of food simply rolling into the next.
Dec 1, 2008
Word of Mouth: Tournée
Tournée (tour-nay): Literally, French for “turned.” In culinary terms, this describes a specific method for preparing and presenting vegetables by cutting them into uniform oblong shapes.If you really want to get fancy this Thanksgiving, you can have a go at “turning” all your vegetables! Just make sure you have a lot of extra time to spare before you start…Starchy vegetables like carrots, potatoes, and parsnips are good candidates for turning.
Nov 24, 2008
How To Cut Carrots into Flowers
Carrot coins? Yawn. Matchsticks? Too much work! Next time you’re making a stew or miso soup or gingered carrots, take a few minutes and make carrot flowers. It’s simple, not too much extra work and the pay-off is big. Carrot flowers add a sweet, graphic visual to your dish and are an effort that is always appreciated. Step-by-step instructions below the jump.
Nov 17, 2008
Recipe Rescue! How to Save a Broken Buttercream
If you’ve been baking long enough or simply made enough frosting, surely you’ve had your lovely buttercream break into greasy, grainy clumps of sugary butter at least once. If not, at least tell us you have because it’s certainly happened to us – and significantly more than once, too!
Nov 13, 2008
Word of Mouth: Unctuous
Unctuous (ung-choo-us) adj.: 1. Having the quality or characteristics of oil, slippery; 2. Containing or composed of oil or fat; 3. Abundant in organic materials, soft and rich.Nora’s post on Forsterkase cheeseTo us, ‘unctuous’ is much more of a texture than a flavor. It’s that feeling of having your entire mouth coated with butter, oil, or sometimes a flavor. It can equally describe the starchy-soft quality of good risotto or the melting richness of bone marrow.
Nov 12, 2008
How Do You Slice an Apple?
We’re not going to claim there’s a right way and a wrong way. But we’re all slicing a lot of apples these days (and will be for months), so we’re wondering how our method compares to yours. See step-by-step photos, below…First we slice it in half, then into quarters.Then, to get out the core, we slice diagonally along the inside of each quarter.
Nov 11, 2008
Quick Tip: Flavor Soups with Cheese Rinds
We go through a healthy amount of Parmesan and Pecorino cheese in our house, and we used to just throw the rind away. This was until we discovered this trick used by chefs and Italian grandmothers for centuries!When your soup or sauce is ready to simmer, throw in an old cheese rind. The rind will soften and the flavors of the cheese will infuse throughout the dish.
Nov 10, 2008
How and When to Dock a Pie Crust
Though you may sometimes be tempted, docking a pie crust has nothing to do with chucking it off the end of a pier! Like using pie weights, this is another method used when pre-baking a pie crust and is no more complicated than pricking the crust with a fork before baking. More details after the jump…Pricking holes in the rolled-out pie dough allows the steam to escape while it’s baking.
Nov 7, 2008
Cooking Basics: When and How To Deglaze a Pan
Before we really got into cooking, deglazing was definitely not a part of our vocabulary. We also assumed that the brown gunk adhered to the bottom of the pan indicated another burned dinner – not the delicious fond we now know it to be! If you’re scratching your head right now, read on…The first step in most recipes is sautéing the chopped vegetables and/or browning the meat.
Nov 5, 2008
Good Question: How To Ripen Peppers?
Here’s a good question about harvesting peppers from reader Amy:My peppers did not ripen before the frost. Is there anything that I can do with these so that they will still ripen or any way to preserve them (other than freezing)? Any suggestions would be appreciated! – AmyMature peppers of many varieties start off green, and gradually turn yellow, then red, as they ripen. Green bell peppers are cheaper than red and yellow because they are unripe and not as sweet.
Oct 27, 2008
Tip: Save Shiitake Mushroom Stems for Soups!
Most recipes only use the shiitake mushroom cap and say to discard the tough stem. But instead of just throwing them away, try using those stems to flavor your soups and stocks!The stems of shiitake mushrooms are too fibrous to eat, but they still pack a lot of flavor. Just a few stems can infuse a broth with rich flavors and earthy aromas. The stems are especially good in vegetable and broth-based soups (as opposed to thick stews).
Oct 24, 2008
Quick Tip: How to Keep Your Cutting Board from Slipping
Trying to use a cutting board that slips against the counter with every motion of your knife is not only annoying, it’s dangerous! Don’t worry – this is one kitchen grievance that’s easy to solve.The easiest and cheapest way to keep your cutting board from slipping is to put a damp paper towel or damp kitchen cloth under your cutting board. This creates friction between your board and the counter to keep things from slipping.
Oct 20, 2008
Tip: Use an Apple Corer to Give Cupcakes a Filling
Whether or not you think cupcakes are a waning fad, as long as there are children in the world and muffin pans for sale, we think they’ll stick around. If you’ve got an apple corer handy (’tis the season, right?), you can make those cupcakes a little more sophisticated and surprising…Once the cupcakes are baked, twist an apple corer down through the top, without hitting the bottom, and burrow out a little tunnel.
Oct 16, 2008
Seasonal Spotlight: Prickly Pear Fruit
The fruit of the prickly pear cactus, also called tuna in Spanish, has been a staple of Native American and Central American cuisine for centuries. The plant has been introduced to southern Europe as well, where it is also considered a delicacy.Prickly pear cactus fruits ripen in the late summer and early fall. Pears with reddish orange to purple skin are considered to be the sweetest. Green and white pears can be eaten too.
Oct 10, 2008
Wine: All About Fair Trade Wine
While Fair Trade wine has been available in Europe since 2003, it was only in 2007 that the first Fair Trade wines became available in the United States.Like other Fair Trade products, Fair Trade wine means that the wine was produced in a fair and humane way, to meet the Internationally recognized Fair Trade standards. Farmers are treated with respect, paid a decent wage, and the grapes are cultivated in an environmentally sustainable manner.
Oct 9, 2008
Cultural Differences: Salad Before or After Dinner?
Americans have their salads right off the bat, prelude to the main event. At the very least, salad is served alongside the main course. In Europe, however, salad is often served after dinner. It’s considered a cleansing finish before cheese or dessert. We know two people (both Americans) who do this, and they have different reasons why…One is a Francophile who is adept in many things European when it comes to dining.
Oct 2, 2008
Word of Mouth: Galette
galette (gah-leht): n. A round, flat cake with a flaky pastry crust, originating in France.We’ve been talking about crostatasTurns out, a galette and a crostata are essentially the same thing (one French, one Italian). Both of them differ from tarts in the sense that a tart is baked into a tart pan. Crostatas and galettes are typically free-form and rustic, with the dough edges folded up around the filling, which can be savory or sweet.
Oct 2, 2008
What’s the Difference? Hard Shell vs. Soft Shell Clams
Confession: For a very (very) long time, we believed that, like soft shell crabs, soft shell clams really did have soft edible shells. Turns out…not quite! Although their shells are comparatively thin and brittle, there’s a bigger difference between soft shell and hard shell clams…All clams feed by filtering sea water through a siphon. In hard shell clams, this siphon is relatively small and short, allowing the clam to close its shell.
Sep 30, 2008
Neighborhood Market Find: Cilantro Mini-Cubes
We have a love-hate relationship with the small grocery store/bodega closest to our apartment. The produce section is bleakOk, we know these things run a very distant second to fresh cilantro, but we so rarely use an entire bunch that maybe it would be nice to have a shelf-stable version that could be used in increments?In the edge of the photo, you can see that there is an onion (cebolla) version of the same product. We didn’t buy either.
Sep 26, 2008
About the Cream at the Top of Non-Homogenized Milk
Last week in our post about Straus Family Creamery, a reader commented: ok, i recently purchased the straus milk and was wondering what you’re suppose to do with the cream top? do you put it over something, throw it out or leave it in there? When milk is not homogenized, the cream in it rises to the top. This is a natural occurrence, and was more common in the old days.
Sep 24, 2008
Food Science: Vegetables That Are Even Better After a Frost!
Yes, it’s true: summer is on its way out, but it’s not all sad! There are some end-of-summer vegetables that are even better after a good frost or two. Which ones and why? Read on…Members of the cabbage family are known for growing well in cooler temperatures and for being frost-tolerant. This family includes cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, turnips, radishes, kale, chard, and brussels sprouts.
Sep 23, 2008
Seasonal Spotlight: Pink Oyster Mushrooms
As the weather gets cooler and the rains come, mushroom collectors go off into the woods to hunt for prizes. We haven’t had any rain in the Bay Area yet, but if you’re getting rain in your area, you may be seeing more fungi at your local farmer’s markets and greengrocers.We have been seeing a lot of cultivated mushrooms showing up at the markets here, and one new item making the rounds is the pink oyster mushroom.
Sep 22, 2008
Easy Lifting: Using Aluminum Foil Liners in Cake Pans
Ever have trouble getting cakes, brownies, and bar cookies out of those square cake pans without having it crumble into a horrid mess? Here’s a quick tip we picked up from the folks over at Cook’s IllustratedTear off two sheets of aluminum foil long enough to line the sides and bottom of the pan with a little extra to hang over the lip. Fold each sheet so that they’re the same width as the bottom of the pan.
Sep 15, 2008
In Season: Italian Prune Plums
What are those little baby-fist-sized plums that have been in the markets for the last month? They’re called Italian Prune Plums and I adore them. Sometimes also called Empress Plums, they are the European-style plum (Prunica domestica) – small, dense, egg-shaped fruit with blue or purple skin, freestone pits (they separate easily from the flesh) and yellow flesh. These are the plums that are made into prunes.
Sep 10, 2008
Word of Mouth: Sabayon
Sabayon, noun (sah-bye-on): A sweet dessert sauce made of egg yolks, sugar, and Marsala. More details and a recipe after the jump!This custard sauce has Italian origins, but was long ago adopted into classical French cuisine. You might also see it called “zabaglione” or “zabayon” in recipes and on menus.Foamy and creamy, sabayon is lighter and (typically) less sweet than milk-based creme anglaise.
Sep 9, 2008
Wine Bottle Closures: Cork vs. Screw Cap
Do wine closures matter to you? When buying a bottle of wine are you influenced by the type of closure? Do you consider screw caps to contain cheaper or lower quality wine? Have you embraced screw caps or are you a die-hard devotee to cork?At its simplest the closure on a wine bottle must keep the wine in and oxygen out. Tradition, regulations, cost, the style of wine, and consumer acceptability all influence the closure selected by the producer.
Sep 4, 2008
Food Science: The Best Place to Store Tomatoes…and Why
In our review of Creamy Creamless Tomato Soup last week, we accidentally divulged that we’d been storing our fresh tomatoes in the fridge – a big no-no that many of you were quick to point out!You were right to slap our hands, and here’s why…Tomatoes are surprisingly delicate, we’ve discovered!
Sep 2, 2008
Quick Tip: How to Roast Peppers
“Roasting” in this case is a bit of a misnomer. We might better call this technique “charring”! In either case, roasted peppers are a delicious addition to salads, frittatas, and a whole lot more.Here’s how…If you have a gas stove, the easiest method for roasting peppers is right on the stove top. Turn a burner to the highest setting and set your pepper directly on the flame. Use a pair of tongs to turn the pepper until the skin is completely blackened.
Aug 25, 2008
Knife Skills: Keeping Your Knife Sharp
Once you’ve gone to all the trouble of sharpening your knife, the next step is keeping that way! This is easy to do and only takes a few seconds. Here’s how…As you use your knife, the sharp edge will gradually start to curl under. When you sharpen your knife on a steel, you’re actually just straightening the edge back out again. (This is as opposed to sharpening your knife on a whetstone, where metal is being removed to form a sharper edge.
Aug 25, 2008
Easier Than You Think: Candied Mint Leaves
We’re not ones to spend a ton of time gussying up our food, but if we’ve put some effort into a recipe, it is nice to present it with a little flair every now and then. These mint leaves — sugared, crystallized, candied, or however you describe them — are super simple and a lovely way to top off a scoop of ice cream…It’s a little tough to see the sprinkly sugar crust on the mint leaves above, but we had a hard time finding a close-up, detailed photo.
Aug 21, 2008
Food Science: When Sweet Corn Isn’t Sweet
Last Tuesday, there was so much sweet corn at the farmer’s market that it was tumbling off the tables. We bought enough to last the week and cooked half of it that night in a fiesta of buttery bliss. When we cooked the rest of the ears a few days later, the corn was noticeably less sweet and even had a slightly chalky mouthfeel.What gives? Did we buy bad corn or is there something else going on?Here’s the scoop: When freshly picked, sweet corn is high in sugar and low in starch.
Aug 19, 2008
Quick Tip: Roasting Tomatoes Under the Broiler
A while back, we made a recipe for a fire-roasted salsa that called for broiling the tomatoes in the oven. At first skeptical, we were amazed at the smoky flavor the tomatoes picked up when cooked this way. Now we “fire-roast” our tomatoes for almost all our recipes!Here’s how:As always, the freshest tomatoes work best for this method. Pick ones that have a tight skin and smell strongly of ripe tomato.Wash the tomatoes and slice them in half, leaving the skins on.
Aug 18, 2008
Look! DIY Outdoor Stove
This outdoor stove is known as a rocket stove as it uses twigs instead of logs for fuel. It’s also extremely easy to build.The L-shaped design of the chimney results in virtually smoke-free cooking, and since it requires minimal amounts of wood, it’s rather sustainable and eco-friendly. The materials needed to build this stove are cheap and easy to find. It makes a good outdoor stove for cooking and grilling, or simply for keeping warm.
Aug 14, 2008
Look! Super-Quick Defrosting on Granite Countertops
These bags were full of hard blocks of frozen, homemade chicken stock. By the time we prepped our ingredients for the soup we were making, the ones sitting on our granite countertops were almost fully liquid, while one bag that was on the edge of the stovetop was still frozen solid. Why is that?We know granite isn’t everyone’s cup of tea around here, but it does have a remarkable ability to defrost things.
Aug 12, 2008
Cilantro: Why Is Its Taste So Polarizing?
Personally, I love cilantro and can’t get enough of it – I add heaps of it to my guacamole and salsa. It tastes fresh and citrus-like to me. However, supposedly there’s a genetic trait that makes cilantro taste like soap or ground metal shavings to some people. Most people agree on what most foods taste like. Strawberries taste sweet, lemons are sour, and steak is savory. But a large amount of the population cannot agree on what cilantro (also known as coriander) tastes like.
Aug 8, 2008
Help! Our Jam is Too Hard!
We’ve been in a confessional mood lately, offering up photos of our inedible cooking disasters… Here’s another misstep, although the problem this time isn’t with the taste. This jam is absolutely delicious — just not quite right in its consistency. What did we do wrong? We had some almost-overripe fruit to use up — peaches and yellow plums, specifically — and decided to cook it down with some sugar and minced ginger to make refrigerator jam.
Aug 6, 2008
What’s the Difference? Wet, Dry, and Diver Scallops
Passing by our grocery store’s fish counter, we often see scallops listed under these different names. The scallops always look pretty much the same to us, so we weren’t sure what the names really meant or why they ranged so greatly in price.
Jul 31, 2008
Tip: Drying Fruits And Vegetables In The Car
Summer’s full bounty of fruits and vegetables is peaking and we can’t eat everything fast enough. We’ve been canning and pickling so we can preserve these wonderful flavors and nutrients to enjoy in the winter months ahead. We’re also drying.Drying fruits and vegetables is incredibly easy. It can be done with a dehydrator which you can purchase from Amazon or other kitchen supply stores, but we lack the counter space for yet another appliance.
Jul 25, 2008
Favorite British Kitchen Words
Pudding, meaning dessert. Biscuit, meaning cookie. Clingfilm, meaning plastic wrap. I love the differences between British and English cooking (cookery!) words.It’s always disappointing when American publishers edited out the ‘dessertspoonfuls,’ ‘mince,’ and ‘courgettes’ when revising British cookbooks and I have never really understood why.
Jul 21, 2008
Grilling Tip: Do You Need to Soak Kabob Skewers?
We’ve always read we should soak wooden or bamboo skewers in water for half an hour or so before putting them on the grill. Otherwise, they’ll catch fire. True or false? Well, it’s a practice that’s up for debate, and we haven’t skewered enough kabobs in our day to have an adequate comparison of soaked vs. non-soaked sticks.
Jul 9, 2008
Drumstick Malunggay
We saw this strange item being sold by a Filipino farmer at the Alemany Farmer’s Market on Saturday. What is it? It’s called a drumstick malunggay and comes from the Moringa vegetable tree. It’s also called the horseradish tree in some parts of the world, as the edible roots are grated and eaten, and have a taste similar to horseradish. Most of the tree, including the leaves, flowers, seed pods, and roots are edible. The tree is commonly found in Asia and Africa.
Jul 7, 2008
Tell Us: Is There an Herb You Can’t Stand?
We recently made a simple vegetable dish that called for a healthy amount of tarragon. The tarragon was fresh and tender and beautiful — and completely overwhelming.It made us think that, hmm, maybe we just don’t love tarragon. What about you? Tell us below…Tarragon has a distinct, anise-like flavor that just tasted off to us. Maybe it was the dish, or maybe we’ve found an herb we can’t take when it’s used liberally.
Jul 3, 2008
How to: Tell When Your Grill Is Hot Without A Thermometer
Most newer gas grills come equipped with an internal thermometer so you can keep an eye on the temperature.But if your grill doesn’t have one, it’s not too hard to tell when your grill is hot enough to get cookin’!Here’s how…Hold your hand about five inches above the grill and count how many seconds you can hold it there comfortably.5-6 seconds: Your grill is at about 250-degrees, which is equal to low heat.
Jul 2, 2008
Food Science: Cooking with Marinades
To marinate or not to marinate? That is the question!We hear a lot of differing opinions about whether marinating meat before grilling it helps or hinders, adds flavor or detracts.What’s your opinion? Hear ours after the jump…Marinades are most commonly some form of acidic liquid like vinegar, wine, or even yogurt combined with salt, pepper, and herbs for flavor. Similar to brining, the fibers on the outside surface meat get broken down by the acid in the marinade.
Jul 1, 2008
Quick Tip: How to Tell When Oil is Hot
Recipes often say to start cooking ingredients “when the oil is hot.” But this seems like something that’s easier said than done!The problem with adding raw ingredients to under-heated oil is that the food will absorb the oil instead of cooking, and you’ll end up with a greasy final dish.Heat the oil too much, though, and your food cooks too quickly–the outside burning before the inside is cooked through.
Jun 18, 2008
Food Science: Why Blanched Vegetables (Sometimes) Turn Brown
A few weeks ago, we talked about blanching as a great way to prepare vegetables for salads and crudite platters. Cooking them quickly in boiling water brings out both their flavor and their bright colors. That is to say, except for when they turn brown! Why does this happen? Read on! The most likely reason our veggies turned brown is because we covered the pot with a lid after adding the vegetables. Yes, covering the pot certainly seems like the logical thing to do!
Jun 17, 2008
Building Blocks: How to Make a Roux
Don’t get flustered by the fancy French name! Among all the classic French techniques, making a roux is not only the simplest, but also the most useful. It forms the base for everything from a creamy mac n’ cheese to Cajun gumbo. Here’s how! Pronounced “roo” as in kangaroo, a roux is equal parts butter and flour, mixed together, and then cooked briefly over medium heat.
Jun 16, 2008
Food Science: The Case for Oven-Finishing
Ever wondered why recipes for delicate meats like steaks and fish fillets often call for the meat to be seared on the stovetop and then finished in the oven?And with such thin cuts of meat, whether oven-finishing really necessary?The answer, fellow curious cooks, lies in the physics of heat transfer…When we sear meat on the stovetop, the primary heat source is from below. There’s a direct transfer of heat from the metal of the pan to your food.
Jun 10, 2008
Baker’s Tricks: How to Avoid Adding Too Much Flour While Kneading
Bread bakers are a calm, serene, zen-like bunch. (Right?!)But nothing gets us more paranoid than the fear of adding too much flour: too little and we have bubble-gum dough sticking to everything, too much and we’ve got a hockey puck.Here’s a quick tip we came across recently to help us find that perfect balance!Have your extra flour in a shallow bowl next to your workspace.As the dough gets too sticky to work with, dip your palms into the flour and continue kneading. Presto!
Jun 9, 2008
Technique: Muddling
Many warm weather cocktails use fresh ingredients such as herbs and fruit, and often, muddling is required. To muddle means to press the ingredients against the side of the glass with a muddler. Muddling helps to release the flavors of the fresh ingredients so that they bind with the alcohol better. However, one must take care not to over-muddle when working with delicate herbs such as mint and basil. This can impart a bitter taste in the drink.
Jun 5, 2008
Cooking with Tea: Smoky Lapsang Souchong
Walking home last night, the neighborhood was thick with the smells of barbecue. Oh, how we love that smoky smell. And we love tasting it in our food even more!Barbecue wood chips, liquid smoke, bits of smoked bacon–whether we’re grilling or not, we have lots of tricks to infuse our favorite dishes with a subtle smokiness.But have you ever considered tea?Lapsang souchong is a tea from the Fukien province in China.
Jun 2, 2008
Technique: How To Remove the Skins from Nuts
In our post last week on Dried Fig and Nut bars, we mentioned needing to remove the skins from the hazelnuts we were using. If left on, these skins can discolor your baked goods or make them taste bitter.These days you can find most nuts with their skins already removed. If not, it’s simple enough to do yourself. And there are actually two ways to choose from!Method #1: ToastingHeat your oven to 400-degrees.Spread the nuts on a sheet pan in a single layer.
May 19, 2008
Knife Skills: How to Hold Your Knife
When it comes right down to it, the best way to hold your chef’s knife is the way that feels the most comfortable to you.But if you’re looking for a little more control and speed in your cutting, here’s how!With your thumb and first finger, pinch the blade of your knife where it runs into the handle.Alternatively, you can wrap all four fingers around the handle with your thumb touching the heel of the blade.
May 16, 2008
Word of Mouth: Preferment
Preferment, noun: A combination of flour, water, and sometimes yeast that is prepared in advance (as in pre-fermentation) and then mixed into the main body of the dough as an additional ingredient.When we first started baking, this was a new technique and a new vocab word all in one. Wrapping your head around the idea of a preferment can be a little tricky at first, but well worth it for the boost in flavor and structure one provides!Making bread with a preferment gives everything a head start.
May 14, 2008
Food Science: Understanding the Maillard Reaction
Q: What do roasted meat, crusty bread, and dark beers all have in common?A: Aside from a mighty fine dinner, all three are made tastier are thanks to a chemical process known as the Maillard reaction!Curious?! Click through for more…Pronounced “my-YARD,” this reaction was first identified by Louis Camille Maillard back in 1910. He found that sugars and amino acids will react at high heats, producing a host of flavors and aromas, many of which make our mouths water.
May 13, 2008
Seasonal Spotlight: Fresh Garbanzo Beans
A friend of ours who purchases supplies for a culinary school slipped us a few of these fresh, green beauties the other day. We felt like we were “in” on some clandestine culinary transaction!Breaking open the pod revealed two perfect garbanzo beans nestled snugly against each other. We ate them right there, popping one and then the other into our mouth with glee.They have a clean grassy taste, very similar to fresh peas.
May 9, 2008
Food Science: How Does Brining Work?
We’ve talked about how much we love brining lean cuts of meat to infuse extra moisture and flavor before cooking.This technique is widely used in traditional Scandinavian cuisine and has definitely made its way into cuisines world wide.Though we’ve enjoyed the tasty results of brining ourselves, we were curious about how brining actually alters the taste and texture of meat.To find out, we turned to our favorite food scientist, Harold McGee!
Apr 29, 2008
Tip: Getting A Good Caramelized Top On Crème Brûlée
Recently, a friend of ours asked us, What do you think is one of the sexiest foods? Our response: Crème brûlée. We get so much pleasure in cracking that caramelized sugar top to get to the smooth, rich cream beneath it. Some people feel the burnt sugar is the best part. We’ll show you in this post how to do it right. To burn the sugar evenly, follow these steps accompanying the photo: Add the sugar to the top of the custard.
Apr 25, 2008
Quick Tip: Beating Egg Whites
Clouds of meringue, creamy soufflés, pillowy sponge cake–these elegant dishes can be the pride of any table…and they can be particularly aggravating when they don’t go as planned.
Apr 21, 2008